It was about a year ago that Microsoft first launched its “Scroogled” anti-Google campaign that pointed a long crooked finger at the search giant’s Google Shopping practices. Although Microsoft’s various accusations against Google are technically valid, they’re not particularly damning in the sense that Google hasn’t made much of a secret of the fact that it places ads in Gmail and produces sponsored results on Google Shopping.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is continuing its Scroogled campaign by launching the Scroogled store. Now you can buy hats, t-shirts, and mugs with the Scroogled logo and from-the-hip sayings and artwork--eg, a t-shirt with a large image of a spider and the words, “STEP INTO OUR WEB”.

If the whole Scroogled bit was being pushed by a privacy group or something of that ilk, it would be kind of funny (if overwrought), but the fact that Microsoft is driving it is just bizarre. Like every big tech company, Microsoft surely has its own list of egregious sins (maybe someone over there should Google--er, Bing--"glass houses"), and to see one tech behemoth go after another this way is jarring.

It’s possible that Microsoft is doing all of this to find chinks in the armor of the Gmail juggernaut and pull users over to Outlook, but it’s surely a strange way of competing.